Sisters force an end to the rule of silence

Robert McCartney

By Thomas Harding

12:01AM GMT 21 Feb 2005

Of the 1,800 murders committed by the IRA during the Troubles, the killing of Robert McCartney stands out as the first in which the local community has been allowed by the paramilitaries to co-operate with police.

There has been revulsion within the republican community over the murder of one of their own followed by the cynical shielding of his killers.

Sinn Fein discourages any co-operation with the authorities and anybody who defies the edict can expect to suffer the consequences.

Paula McCartney, Robert's sister, has urged people who have evidence to go to the police. If she had said that a fortnight ago when her brother was killed, she could at the very least have expected to be "put out" of her home by the IRA.

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But, facing a huge backlash among its own supporters, including extraordinary anti-republican graffiti that said "PIRA [Provisional IRA] scum out", Sinn Fein and the IRA have finally responded.

Gerry Adams, already on the back foot over the £26.5 million Northern Bank robbery, didn't go so far as urging any witnesses to contact the police but suggested they contact a solicitor or priest.

The IRA then issued a statement distancing itself from the murder and adding that the McCartney family should be assisted in its "search for truth and justice".

Republicans are also said to have become anxious after the White House began to take an interest in the murder. There have been reports that George W Bush may exclude the Sinn Fein leadership from attending the St Patrick's Day celebrations in the US because of the IRA's refusal to decommission its weapons.

Speaking outside the family home in Short Strand, east Belfast, Paula McCartney said: "We welcome the IRA statement and view it as removing obstacles to witnesses who were afraid to come forward with vital information and evidence. We as a family appreciate people going to the police. That's how we are going to get justice."

Mrs McCartney and her four sisters, have received widespread praise for their defiance of the Provisionals who started a campaign of intimidating witnesses after the murder of Mr McCartney, 33, a father of two young sons, who was a Sinn Fein voter and a well-liked member of the nationalist community.

His killers are alleged to have included a senior figure in the IRA, a Provisional IRA hitman and five other republicans.

The forklift truck driver was with a friend in Magennis's pub near Belfast city centre when a group of IRA men entered having returned from the Bloody Sunday commemorations in Londonderry. An argument ensued and as Mr McCartney was held, his throat was slashed with a bottle. A knife and metal bars were also used in the attack.

The pub's doors were then allegedly locked while its was cleaned of any forensic evidence. There were more than 70 people in the bar and all were warned to remain silent.

Paula McCartney said the murder was "like something the Shankill Butchers would have done" referring to the loyalist gang who murdered and mutilated Catholics in the worst days of the Troubles.

"I never thought IRA men would do this to a nationalist in Belfast in the 21st century," she said.